There is a line we walk, a line between good and evil, between what is real and what is unreal, between sanity and madness and between life and dreams, a place with no bounderies, a place we call...The Edge of Reality.

The Edge of Reality is the latest film from my production company JB Productions. JB Productions was started by myself, Joe Bagnardi and some friends. My friends and some local actors took care of the acting and crew work. Ron Rausch who also acted did the make-up and the special effects. In the years between 1969 to 1991 we put out 250 short films featuring all genres. I then worked on a werewolf film in Texas called Verdun Manor. I was assitant to director Harry Keane on that project and it was shot on Super 16. We shot the whole thing in two weeks. I then went back home to upstate New York and received a call from another independent filmmaker in my area Bruce G. Hallenbeck. Bruce had directed Vampyre and Fangs. He was working on his new horror anthology called Black Easter. He hosted the film dressed up as a demented bunny. I was glad to assist him. The film featured Hammer's Veronica Carlson and Debbie Rochon. After that I began to think about doing my own feature.

At the time, we were going to shoot a post nuclear war film called Nuclear Rage featuring a character from my short film series called Wasteland. We decided at the time that location wise it may be easier to set the film in the present and NOT in a post nuclear future. We took the look of the character and decided to make him into a vampire hunter called Shadow Tracker. After working on the film for two years we got a distributor in New Jersey after having found us at the Chiller Theatre show there. It was (and is) released currently by EI Cinema and is now called Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter.

My next film was a co-production with Kevin Lindenmuth of Brimstone Productions and Bruce G. Hallenbeck. It is called Blood of the Werewolf, which is also a horror anthology. Bruce G. Hallenbeck wrote and directed the first story and I was his cameraman. Kevin did the second story and I wrote, directed and filmed the third story. Kevin has found a distributor for it and it is currently available on DVD and can be found quite easily on the internet to order through Amazon and other sites.

The next film was shot in three days and was just for fun. It was a tribute to Star Trek and used new characters. It was called Star Quest: Destinies, which was patterned after Star Trek: Generations. We hope to get it to Star Trek festivals.

The latest film is The Edge of Reality. This film was made because I am a hugh fan of TV anthologies and movie anthologies. Many people grew up watching The Twilight Zone, Thriller, Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, One Step Beyond, Tales from The Darkside, Ghost Story (later Circle of Fear) and Tales from the Crypt. We also had shows return like The Next Step Beyond, The Twilight Zone (1985) and also last year's Twilight Zone tv series. In films we has Dead of Night, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Creepshows 1 and 2, The House that Dripped Blood and many others by the likes of Amicus Studios. There are others as well in TV and film that I didn't even mention. The horror antholgy - not a new thing but seeing all the shows and films above, a popular one.

It always amazed me that the original Twilight Zone is still running. The reason I think, is because of good storytelling. Serling, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont were all masters in their craft. That is why these short twenty something minute shows are still running today.

My original idea was to do a film called Tales of the Grim Reaper and have the Reaper be the host wandering through a cemetery and pointing to various graves and then going into the stories. Then one day I was watching an old Elvis film called Live a Little, Love a Little and it featured a dream sequence with him singing a haunting song called The Edge of Reality. I just loved that title. I felt it was more in spirit with The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. That became my new title. Now the question was, what were the stories going to be?

During the time of shooting Shadow Tracker, one of my actresses, Mary Kay Hilko submitted a script to me. It was a haunting love story with a young couple who buy a farm that is haunted by a killer. They always use quotes from Shakespear to each other. That gave us the title Sweet Sorrow. Like Shadow Tracker, that was shot on film and then put away. My intention was to always use it in a horror anthology. We didn't get it into The Edge of Reality but if we do a sequel, that will be in it.

The first story in the film is called Dead Man. This is a tell-tell heart type of story about a game warden who tracks a killer to a hidden cabin in the woods and confronts him. The killer then kills him and decides to dispose of his body in the lake. Bruce G. Hallenbeck plays the killer and Ron (Shadow Tracker) Rausch plays the game warden. Ron had found the public domain story over twenty years ago and showed it to me. We were going to do a short film on it and never got around to it. I kept saying to him "someday Ron, someday." Then twenty-somthing years later I ask him for it and lo and behold he pulls it from a desk. He still had it. Bill Chaput and Mary Kay Hilko also appear and Rosa Hallenbeck (Bruce's wife) did the make-up.

The second story is called The Maze. The Maze is loosely based on a short film I did in '78 called Beyond the Twilight Zone. That film had a hunter in the woods who is shooting at animals (not really) and then is hunted himself by a hunter in a safari outfit. We then see that he is actually hunting himself. He hunts himself through the whole film. Then he fires his gun. We then see the original hunter with the killer's gun in his hand. Was it suicide? Did the hunter snap or was his evil doppleganger really there?

In the new version The Maze, advertising man Harry Swift is fired for drinking on the job. Harry is played by actor Bill Chaput. Harry then heads home. When he gets there he finds suitcases on the porch filled with his own clothes. His wife is there waiting for him. She knows now that he is unemployed and that he drinks. She tells him to leave and put his clothes in storage. Harry then goes to the storage facility and is putting his stuff away when suddenly he notices he is being watched. The person watching him comes closer to him and pulls out a knife. We then see that this other person is also Harry. An evil doppleganger version. He says that he is Harry's inner demon and that he is sick of Harry as well, and has come to do Harry's bidding, which according to him is to kill Harry. Harry panics, runs and tries to escape this "maze" of storage rooms with the evil Harry behind him. Bill did a great job in both parts. We ran him ragged. He was a great sport and he portrayed two different characters very well. It was like having two actors. Also appearing are Dan Bailey, Leo Nicotera, Mary Kay Hilko and filmmaker Jeff Kirkendall.

The third story was written by Bruce G. Hallenbeck. Bruce by the way is our Rod Serling for the film and plays the films' host. He wanders the cemetery telling his stories. Is he alive or dead? Hmmmm. The story is called The Quarry. It is basically a Bigfoot film that is based on a true story that Teddy Roosevelt used to tell around campfires. Ron Rausch and Gary Secor play two business men turned campers who want to "get away from it all" to enjoy an outdoor trip. They reach old mountain man Baumann (Hallenbeck) who tells them the story of Bigfoot and his encounter with him once. The campers finally get on their way to enjoy some fishing and camping. They discover at some point that they are being watched. Bigfoot knocks over their tent and wrecks some of their equipment. They finally decide to leave and eventually must confront him. Bigfoot is played by actor Dan Bailey who played a werewolf in Blood of the Werewolf. The make-up is by Mary Kay Hilko. It took her 5-7 hours to get the make-up on Dan. Most of it was a body costume but extensive work was done from the neck up including some red lenses for his eyes. We had to film his scenes quick because we needed to get most of the costume returned that weekend and it was getting dark rather quickly. Actually the dark blended well for him and we had a great shot of Bigfoot with the moon behind him.

In post production my associate producer and editor was filmmaker Jeff Kirkendall. We shot the film on mini-dv and Jeff edited it on his computer which had all the latest in movie editing software. He added the titles and effects. Jeff runs his own website at www.veryscaryproductions.com. Most of the music and the theme was by Bob Mares. Bob had worked on Blood of the Werewolf as well. Local TV editor Colin Lovelock created our opening titles and Bruce did the voice over narration. It again was in tone with The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.

Finally when the film was complete we had a big premire in Saratoga at the Off Broadway Theater and Grill. It's a restaurant that has three full size movie screens and the great thing is you can watch your movie and eat a nice meal at the same time. The lights are dimmed and it is an awarding movie going experience.

Kevin Lindenmuth of Brimstone Media Productions, LLC now has the film and is currently shopping it around. Check out his website at www.lindenmuth.com or Jeff Kirkendall's site www.veryscaryproductions.com.